Dump car



Aug- 26, 1930. A. s. lBARROWS; 1,774,125

DUMP CAR Filed April 23, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Aug.v 26, i930 Unire sra TS, PATENT ALLAN s. B'Aianows, or LosANenLns, CALIFORNIA, AssieNoit To YoUNes'rowN o STEEL 'noon` co. or CLEVELAND,

onio, A' ooitroita'iioii or oiiio DUMP GAR y application inea April 2s,

known that railroads and shippers lose many l thousands of dollars annually, luetoplealiJ-nY age around the door edges, and it is a com# mon experience to observe straw or thelike,

stuffed in the joints around the door edges to prevent leakage. Open Y joints ,around ,the

. doors are due primarily to eitherforbothi of' two causes; one is tliei'ailure ory impairmentY y `of therdoo'r operatingor Vlocking mechanism proper,with the resultthatthe doors are not forced to or heldin fully closed position; the other is yon, account of the bending, buckling,

warping,'or other distortion'or: deformation of the door aroundfthe' edges; i As is well Vknown, dump doors are subject to j severe, service conditions, yparticularly `from fdrop;

ping of the lading onto the doors from acon-l siderable height. The impact. vof the lading j under these conditions tends to deorm the 'l .door and cause gaps and op'eningsaroiindthe edges. finieV it is possible, and inifact common, to provide means to compensate `for* wear orv slack occurring indoorfoperating n mechanisms, it is obviousthatnoamountloffA adjustment or compensationv therein will,V overcome actual deformation,oit the` doors the `type indicated, the diaphragme or needle), themselves which permit oi'openingsor gaps being formed between the edges ,of the'doors and the surrounding ixed parts ofthe car body. w f. o One object, ofmy invention, therefore, is to i provide a dump doory and associatedcar ,partsl so constructed that sealed 'joint-s@ are notoiily obtained when the partsare'irst assembled?,

oints, whereby to prevent lossesjfrom leagki age. .l l l DA specific object of my inventionis to'pr vide' a sheet metal door'so formedthatan'yrf, l* l being indicatedfatll", wherebysaid members.

serve ,asbracesffor Ythe door on theunderside thereof, aswill be understood. Any suitable depression occurring in 'the'central areaor zone thereof, from impacts ollading,`f wrl1` automatically tend to force the edge portions butV which function, vunder subsequentY tendx. ency to deform from impact of ladingQto.,` automatically servel .to maintain-,theI Vsealed securedftothe rcenter .sills. fPreferably', the

192s. sei-iai No. 272,039.

of tie door upwardlyjor in a reverse` direc-y tion Lto the induced depression or deformation when the door is properly supported by the usual vhinges and suitablerrdooroperating mechanism, whereby an effective seal-will be maintainedk around the door'edges.

Other objects of the invention will morey clearly 'appeark from the description and claimsjhereinafter following.V Y Y yIn the drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure lv is a vertical, trans-Q verse, sectional view of a portion of a drop; bottom car,kshcwing my improvements in connection therewith. Figure 2 is a top ,plan

view of the Hoor door, detached, shown` in F igurel. Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional View `oi: .an improvedslope sheet and corre-V sponding to theline 3;;5 lof Figure 1'; Figures land oareviews similar to Figure l, ilf `lustrating two otherembodiments of the invention. And Figure 6 is a similar view,

broken away, and illustrating a still further modification with respectto the-fixed elements of Vthe car with which'V the door edge co-operates.

`Referring first ,i to the Yconstructioii, illus,-`

tratedA in'Figures l, 2, and 3, the drop-bottom car is shown provided with channel center sills l0 l0, transversely extending beams or diaphragms ll-ll, side wall-l2, and Aside stakes 13. Aswill be under-stood, in a car olf beams `1l are spaced longitudinally of the car andvgenerally a single floor door isemployed cient for explanation of'iny improvements., The improved pivoted floor door is indicatedA generallyby the reference character A andV the sameis shown as' hingedly'mounted fatits inneredge, at ,11i to suitablehinge brackets, l5V

hinge members ,16, generallyV two in number l"per door,"'are"e`xtended entirely across the door,y

beyond the "4free-(edge thereof, theV extensions operating mechanismfor the door may be employed, a conventional form being indicated and consisting of a flexible chain or other connector 18 attached at its free end to the extension 17, the chain or 'connector winding around an operating shaft 19.

- and a vert-ical flange 2o As common in this type 'of car, the operating shaft 19 is shown disposed in the space above the diaphragms or needle beams and inside of the .vertical stakes and beneath a side slope sheet 2(5), thelatter extending lengthwise of the car and having its upper longitudinal flanged. edge 21 riveted to the bottom portion of` the sheet constituting the side wall 12. Said sheet 2O slopes dmxnwardly and inwardly, having a main deflccting section 22 Y along its bottom edge, the latter terminating against the tops of the diaphragmsor needle beams.

In cars ofthis general type, with an operating shaft locatedas shown, difficulty has been experienced heretofore in many instances, due to deformation ofthe slope sheet above the shaft. Such deformation frequently occurs from impact of lading, which may bend or' distort the sheet to such an extent as to cause it to engage and bind against the shaft and flexible connections therearonnd. To` overcome this difficulty, and without any appreciable increase in expense, I corrugate the .slope sheet 20 intermediate its top and y plate.

bottom edges, vwith corrugations 244-24, as shown in Figures 1 and 3,'said corrugations extendinginthe direction of the-slope of the sheet-so as not to interfere with discharge of the lading therefrom when the -doors are opened, while giving a very rugged and substan-tial formation toA the slope sheet and minimizing tendency of the same tov deflect, it! being obvious that -thecorrugations act more or less as struts betweenthe zsecured upper and lowerlongitudinal edges Vofthe In the embodiment of my invention shown in Figures 1 and 2, the doorA is Hat for the major portion of its area. Aroundeach of its edges, the? door is preferably provided with a downwardly extending integral flange V25 for increasing strength, said ange being suitably out away at those points where the hinge braces 16 Vandi-17,'necessarilypass therethrough.

In addition, along the side and free 'Y Ledges of the*v door, the sheet metal thereof is formed with a comparatively shallow, upwardly extending arcuate rib 26, the same being disposed above the main plane ofthe door sheet. Y' Said arcuate rib around the three sides mentioned, is adapted'Y to` co-operate with corres ondin arcuate flange sections 27 on floor plates orstrips28, one of which is shown in Figure 1,'and` has Yits upwardly eX- tending flange riveted tothe lower flange 23 ofthe slope sheet.' Along the side edges ofV the ,door 4it will be understood Ythatthe Yfloor strips are vsecured tothe corresponding' cross To maintain this sealed conditi-on, the doork A has incorporated therein, diagonally disposed ribs 30-30 which merge at the center of the door into a more or less rectangular formation, as indicated at 8 Said ribs 3 are also preferably of arcuate cross section and furthermore are of the greatest depth or height at the center of the door where they coalesce, as indicated at 31. Stated other- Wise, the ribs 30 are offset upwardly or pressed upwardly from the main plane of the door sheet'and gradually taper out or become shallower as they approach the corners of the door, and ultimately become merged with the normal plane of the door sheet, as indicated at 32.

With the door having the ribs S30-30, as above described, and the door properly supported at its hinged and free edges, any tendency ofthe central portions of the door to be bent or deflected downwardly will be neu'- tralized or compensated for by the ribs which will tend tovlengthen under the impact of the lading, and this, in turn, will result in a tendency of the edges of the door to be pressed or deflected upwardly, thus maintaining the sealed joints. Stated otherwise, my improve-d door is' what may be termed arched in its central area or Zon-e,- and the distance taining ofthe close `Contact between such `edges and the lined co-operating elements of the car. 4

Referring to the. construction illustrated inv Figure 1, the parts of the car body are the same as in the form of the invention shown inv Figure 1, except for the sealing strip or plate 127, which is Vhere shown as an angle bar riveted -to the lower flange of the slo )e Vsheet 120'. The door B of this construction is' preferably provided with areinforcing `marginal flange 125, and within the area defined said flange., the doorV sheet is curved YVupwardly in arcuate or arch form, as indi- -catedatv 130, the door sheet preferably havingy incorporate/d therein what approximately corresponds' to aportion of a spherical' llo surface. In this construction, the combined hinge strap and -do-or braces 116 are curved to conform to the door sheet, it being understood that in the illustration of Figure 4 the section of thedooris approximately atthe center thereof, whereas the combined strap` and door brace 116 is ats-ome distance from the plane, of the section, which accounts for the vdifference in the curves of theniember 115 and of the sheet comprising the door B. It will be understood that deflection of the door B in any central aiea or zone will produce the same result as liereinbefore describedl Y for the door A. y f

Referring to the forni of the invention il-y lustrated in Figure 5, the car body parts are the same as in the other described figures, eX-

cept that the slope sheet 220 has secured to with a downwardly extending flangeA 225V along its hinged edge and side edges, and lat its free edge said flange.y is inclined outwardly, as indicated at 50, so as to snugly lit against the flange 230 of the floorstrip 227 and form a tight yseal therewith.

In the door C, the arching effect is obtained by a panel V330. offset upwardly from the general main plane of the door sheet, said` panel 330 merging withthe flat portions 51 i y c metal door, said door having integrally of the door sheet by means of downwardly inclined walls 52-52. 'e

In Figure 6, the construction of the door C is the saine as shown in yFigure 5, and the only difference consists in the use of a T-bar 327 to form the sealing member with the free edge of the door.) Said T-bar 327 has the web328 thereof riveted tothe lower verticalilaiige of the slope sheet 320. One relatively narrow flange `329 of vthe T-bar eX# tends inwardly over the fiat portion 51 of the door. rIhe other flange 331 isextende'dL first horizontally outwardly and Ythence in observed that there is a commoncharacter#` istie -in the sealing floor plates 27;; 229-230; and 329-331, illustrated in Figures 1, 5 and 6, respectively. This common characteristic is the formation in the 4floor sealing plates of a groove-likel recess facing downwardly or toward the `corresponding adjacent edges of the doors, the said corresponding edges ofl the doors having compleinentally formed edges Awhereby to obtain the sealingeffect.

While I have herein shown and described The stripl 227 then has ank what yI V'consider the rp'referred.manner of carrying out lmy invention, the same'is mere-1 ly illustrative andlfconteinplate allchanges andinodifica'tions which-come vwithin the scope ofthe 'claims-'appended hereto.-

'Ifclaim:

1. In a car,'thecombiiiationwith thebody s havin'ga door opening therein, said opening f being 'definedbyfixed metal body members, said members onfsoinel sides of the lopening bei-'ng of arcuate'cross seetion5'and a pivoted sheet metal door,somejiiiargins'ofsaid door having"V `correspon'dingly formed integral Y s arcuate ribsto thereby fornisealed Joints',

Asaid door-having an upwardly offset portionkv within thek central zone thereof.

12; In a car,v the combination with a car body having a door open/ing with floor'plate's t'lier'earoiind, certain ofy said floor plates being of'arcuate cross sectionfand a pivotedsheet metal-floor door, saiddoor having integrally formed ribs on itsn'iargin, said ribs being of corresponding' arcuate. formation and co,-4

epemiaiewiui Sala floor pistes, Said door,

having theV centralr zonewthereof upwardly offset fromthe general plane vofL theedge 'pori tions. j Y 3. Asan article of manufacture, a sheet metal door,l said door e' having integrally formed, diagonally arranged, `relatively narrow ribs incorporated therein, said ribs being of gradually decreasing height from approximatelythe center ofthe door toward the cornersjof the doorand oiset upwardly from the plane of the sheet.

l. As an article of manufacture, a sheet formed,diagonally arranged ribs incorporated therein, said ribsbeing of gradually decreasing height from approximately the adapted to cooperate with correspondingly formed members around the door opening.

5.- In a drop-bottoni car having a slope `sheetv along the side thereof,terminating at its lower edge in a vertical section, the coinivbination with an edge strip having affiange secuied'to said vertical section and another seal-forming flange; of a pivotally mounted, sheet metal drop'brottomdoor having its free edge shaped to correspond with said seal- `forming flange and co-operable with said its lower edge in a vertical section, the coinkbination with an edgestrip having a flange Ysecured to said Yvertica'lsection and another seal-forming flange; of ,apivotally mounted4 f dropbottnny door'having its Vfreeedg'e conj .Y

formed to and co-operable withsaidlseali forming flange of saidstrip, said dcorbeing comprised of sheet metal and having inte-`r grally incorporated therein, intermediate the free Vandli-inged edges of the door, an. upwardly arched indentation. Y

7. In a drop bottom car having an underframe, including cross members and provided also With sider stakesand a side Wall terminating above the level of the crossmembers; of aslope sheet secured along its upper edge ktothe loweredge of they side Wall and having its lower edge supported on said cross mem`Y bers,V said sheet having integrally `formed strengthening corrugations therein.

8. Ina car, the combination with a body having a door opening therein, said opening being defined by'ixedbody members, said members on some sides of the opening being of grooved formation with the open side of the grooved formation. extending toward the corresponding edges of the door; and a pivoted' metal door having Corresponding margins thereof integrally and complementally formed to cooperate With'said body members ofegrooved formation to ,thereby form sealed joints on said edges, said door having a raised central portion.

In Witness that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto subscribed my name this 14th day of April7 1928. 1

ALLAN S. BARROWS. 

